


If You Could Give Me A Sign

by TaraHarkon



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: Canon Compliant, During Canon, Gen, Introspection, Lunar Interlude 3
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-10-19
Updated: 2018-10-19
Packaged: 2019-08-04 10:42:45
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 903
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16345244
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TaraHarkon/pseuds/TaraHarkon
Summary: In which Lucretia discovers the aftermath of Angus' magic lessons burnt into the wall of the cafeteria and has questions and no answers.





	If You Could Give Me A Sign

The cafeteria was quiet at that hour, an unlooked-for blessing, honestly. Or it would be when the Director had realized fully what she was looking at. No... Not the Director. Not in that moment. She was all Lucretia then. She was the wide-eyed and nervous writer, the shy young woman who had recorded the adventures of others her whole life, the woman who had spent a year alone and survived certainly, but still. None of the control and patience she had been forced to employ over these ten lonely years was present in that moment. She stepped right up to the metal wall of the Bureau cafeteria and ran her fingers over the burnt edges of the letters that had been scorched into the wall. **L U P**. How? How? No one else should have remembered. No one else should have known... unless... unless Barry? He had already managed to get into the Bureau headquarters once, possessing Robbie and successfully using him to traverse the base and find her secret office. The anti-lich ward should have successfully blocked him from being able to do that but what if he'd found a way around it? What if Barry had found another way onto the base and was... and was taunting her? No, that didn't sound like Barry. Maybe he was trying to get a message to Taako? Not, of course, that Taako would understand, because Taako was still under the effects of the baby Voidfish.

She froze then, her grip on the mug of tea in her hand tightening. What if he wasn't? What if this was Taako? The hand still pressed to the wall pulled away and she stared at those stark letters etched into the metal. They were nearly a foot high, impossible to miss. She thought of all the times that Taako and Barry had stood over their map of Abeir-Toril, of the continent of Faerun, and begged and pleaded with the universe for a sign, for something to tell them where Lup had gone. If Taako had gotten his memories back somehow; if Taako remembered Lup. Gods, he would never forgive her. He would never understand why she'd felt what she was doing was the right thing and he would never forgive her. But would he actively try to undermine her plans? Could he be working with Barry?

Lucretia tried to pull herself back together. She had absolutely no evidence beyond three simple letters (and a damnable conscience filled with guilt) to tell her that anyone had remembered anything. But what if... what if...

And then another thought presented itself as she looked at these burnt in letters. Scorched in, expertly. Lup. Was this the sign they had all been waiting for? Was this the sign Barry had begged and pleaded for until he'd been left sobbing? Was this the sign that Taako had begged for through the long nights when he had forsaken sleep for searching through every spell he could possibly use or rework for a way to find his sister? It had seemed like they had spent so long looking for Lup. Four months that had been ripping Barry and Taako to pieces, nearly literally. Horrifyingly literally, in Barry's case. But what if Lup wasn't gone after all? What if Lup was still very much... well, perhaps not alive but around? And what if she had found out that Taako didn't remember her? No, Lup wouldn't leave a subtle clue like this. Lup had burned worlds to find her twin before and she would absolutely do it again. Lucretia closed her eyes, leaning heavily against that wall as though it could give her answers or the support she desperately needed. But there were no answers here for her, only further questions that would leave her lost and even more alone than she was.

Pressing her hands against the letters again, she thought about the rest of the crew. Merle? No. This wasn't his style. She wasn't sure what his style would be but this certainly wasn't it. It didn't have that certain... Merle quality.  Magnus would be more direct. He would come right out and say it if he'd remembered her. He wouldn't bat around the bush in the slightest. And their Captain? Davenport? No. No, gods, she dreaded what he would do if he remembered, if he knew what she had done to him. It was a guilt that tore her apart and consumed her from the inside. Each of them was, each in their own way. Each of them had left a place inside her hollow when she had ripped them out of their lives and she felt cold and empty. 

Footsteps echoed in the hallway and Lucretia pulled herself together as quickly as she could. Ten years alone had taught her quite a bit about hiding her emotions, about hiding the cracks and the hollows. She stood straight and put her shoulders back as she slipped the mask called Madam Director back into place. Resting her palm flat on the wall, she murmured the words for a mending spell and, with a silent apology, erased her friend a second time. When she turned, the wall was blank and unmarred and Davenport was standing in front of her. 

"Davenport?" He tilted his head to the side and she gave him a sad smile.

"Yes, of course. I should be getting to bed. Thank you, Davenport."


End file.
